Amit Chaudhuri's stories range across the astonishing face of the modern Indian subcontinent. From a divorce about to enter into an arranged marriage to a teenaged poet who develops a relationship with a lonely widower, from singing teachers to housewives to white-collar businessmen, Chaudhuri deftly explores the juxtaposition of the old and new worlds in his native India. Here are stories as sweet and humane as they are incisive and revealing.

'Brilliant . . . Here, as with Chekhov or Hemingway, the reader not only accepts but relishes the economy, because he or she has already been won over by other deft and graceful aspects of the author's style . . . Against these vivid backgrounds are placed an astonishingly varied galaxy of characters . . . A civilised, not to mention an immensely pleasurable read' Ranjit Bolt, Guardian

'Few write as delicately as Chaudhuri, whose characters intertwine their antennae and talk in elliptical low tones, displaying all the while their peculiarly Indian humanity' Philip Glazebrook, Spectator

'Mr Chaudhuri limns the trajectory of an entire life in a handful of pages . . . The stories in this volume combine the folk-art charm and easygoing improvisations of R. K. Narayan with the compassion and evocative atmosphere of Chekhov' Michiko Kakutani, New York Times